The nervous system of a human body consists of a somatic nerve system and an autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is further divided into a sympathetic system and a subsympathetic system. The sympathetic nervous system reacts at a stress period. A stimulus to the sympathetic nerves increases a cardiac beat rate and blood pressure, and suppresses generation of secretion in glands etc. On the contrary, parasympathetic nerves reduce the cardiac beat rate and blood pressure, and stimulates secretion of a gland. The sympathetic nervous system is activated while receiving stress.
A physical reaction to the stress is suppressed by the active hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis which discharges stress hormone containing cortisol. If a mental stress is accumulated daily, stress-related gastric and duodenal ulcer etc. will occur.
Many ways such as a measurement of amylase in saliva, a measurement of catecholamines and cortisol in serum, and a measurement of the catecholamines in urine, etc. are known in order to determine sympathetic nervous tone as an indication of a stress level of a person.
In this way, mechanism due to vasodilatation and influence on the sympathetic nerve, which are caused by stimulating a part of a body surface of a human body with heat, acupuncture, etc., have been considered. In such an action in which the blood vessel dilates, it is considered that production of calcitonin gene related peptide increases by the stimulus. It is considered that a discharge of CGRP etc. is enhanced due to an increase in a muscle blood flow by stimulating the nerves etc. That is, it is considered that this is done by mechanism in which an axon-reflex mechanism arises by the stimulus to afferent nerves etc., and the CGRP is discharged from ends so that blood vessels of a controlled area dilate.
In this way, conventionally, it is pointed out that a stimulus to specific part of a human body by acupuncture or warm temperature is performed, whereby it is possible to improve lifestyle-related diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure. However, the effects by the stimulus were not fully satisfactory for patients.